For a while, Santa Clara caught fire, and Cal appeared to be going the way of Stanford and Nevada, two other teams the Broncos dominated early in the year. A 33-22 Santa Clara lead turned into a 38-34 Cal lead by halftime thanks to a 14-0 Cal run to close the half. Santa Clara similarly threatened in the second half, but after the game was tied at 53, Cal rode Andre Kelly, Grant Anticevich, and Jordan Shepherd to a 19-7 stretch to give the Bears a 72-60 win over Santa Clara in Haas Pavilion.

Kelly scored 14 of his 18 points in the second half, as the Bears held Santa Clara star Jalen Williams to 12 points on 5-12 shooting (0-3 from beyond the arc). Santa Clara shot 40% for the game (28.6% from 3) and while Cal had a stretch where they missed 10 shots in a row for a stretch in the second half, their defense held enough and the shot started going in for the Bears (6-5).

Cal threw multiple bodies at Williams, who had been averaging over 20 points a game coming in.

"Just tried to get him out of the middle," Shpeherd noted, "they like to do stuff in the middle to get him going, middle ball screens. He likes to go left, so we were trying to get him out of his spots, his operational areas, and do the best that we can."

Early on, Cal would struggle on the defensive side of things, with Santa Clara hopping out to a couple early leads of 15-10 and 33-22. Cal struggled to string together stops, as Keshawn Justice, Jalen Williams, and Giordan Williams hit on a handful of tough jumpers, with Justice and G. Williams hitting two threes apiece.

The game changed with 4:37 left in the first half. After a PJ Pipes free throw to make it 34-24, Cal subbed in Makale Foreman and Sam Alajiki, alongside Lars Thiemann. Those three, along with Jordan Shepherd and Jalen Celestine, would spur a gamechanging run. Thiemann knocked out an offensive rebound, which found its way to Alajiki for a 3. Thiemann would hit a tough layup in the lane, blocked two shots on the next possession, then set screens on the next two possesions for Foreman to hit a three and a deep two, tying the game at 34. Shepherd would hit a jumper then would get a steal and hit a layup to give Cal their 38-34 lead at the half.

"Sam brings great energy, Makale brings great energy every day," Fox said, "they have big spirits, it impacts the entire gym on a daily basis. Lars is getting better and better every day and as limited as we've been, some guys have to play some major minutes. I felt Grant and Andre looked a bit heavy legged early in the game, so I thought let's go to the bench. They gave us a great lift and they were happy that the horn sounded for the half, they needed a blow too."

Cal had a five minute stretch in the second half where they missed ten straight shots, prior to Alajiki's second three of the day, but the Bears would start finding Andre Kelly after Santa Clara tied the game at 53.

"We didn't want to get rattled," Shepherd said, "we know other teams are going to make runs, we have to sustain our defense, offense will come. We have Dre, we have Grant, we have guys who can put the ball in the basket, but we wanted to make sure we played defense, played them well, and got them out of their operational areas."

Shepherd, who didn't have his best shooting game (6-19), would pick up a couple more assists on pick and roll plays by Kelly, with Kelly putting back another Shepherd miss.

"Jordan did a great job finding me for some easy buckets in the pick and roll," Kely noted, "he's a great passer, I love playing with him. He's putting it right there for me, I'm just laying it in, that's a huge thing that contributed in the second half."

The sealing play for Kelly may have been a pass to Shepherd. Kelly felt the double team on a post up, found Shepherd cross court, and the grad transfer hit to put Cal up 66-58.

"I've been working on it," Kelly said, "I know when you score more, teams are going to send a double or triple team at me. Coach Fox has been helping me to read where the double team is coming from, so I have an idea where the double team is coming from and then know who will be open. I saw Shep open and he's a great shooter, so I got it to him."

With free throws (Cal went a perfect 10 of 10) and a couple more Santa Clara misses, Cal would have their sixth straight win at Haas Pavilion, and would get over .500 for the first time all season.

- After record seven assists against Idaho State, Shepherd had six in this one, as the pick and roll game with Kelly has been working for the two

- Foreman scored all seven of his points in the second half, as the grad transfer has been a sparkplug for the Bears to end halves. He also had the team high in plus/minus, going +23 for the game

- Cal held Santa Clara to one offensive rebound, corraling eight of their own, as the size factor wore down the Broncos throughout the game. Cal was +11 in rebounding margin on the day, while they also had 23 bench points (to 8 for SCU)

- Despite a three point deficit (6 SCU threes to Cal's 4), Cal shot 36% beyond the arc, Santa Clara shot 29%. Sam Alajiki had two of Cal's four threes.

- Only Jordan Shepherd played more than 30 minutes for the Bears, who utilized their depth in the frontcourt more.